The city of Boston is welcoming its first LGBTQ-supported housing development for seniors, according to plans released by Mayor Marty Walsh’s administration Wednesday.
Within the next few years, the city hopes to complete a transformation of the William Barton Rogers Middle School in Hyde Park into a $33 million development with 74 apartments.
"As Boston's residents continue to age, the need for safe, affordable housing that is welcoming to all remains essential,” Walsh said in a press release Wednesday. “This new development will be an incredible asset to the neighborhood.”
Aileen Montour, the president of LGBTQ Senior Housing Inc., says her nonprofit will co-own the space and work with the developer Pennrose Development to create a safe and inclusive space.
“The primary concern of aging LGBT folks is where we are going to live that will be safe and welcoming, and where we don't have to go back into the closet,” Mountour said. “People who have finally been able to come out of the closet may be forced back into the closet for fear that they'll be treated badly, and that's horrible. That shouldn't happen after all these years.”
The new complex will be welcoming to all seniors ages 62 years and older, and specifically welcoming to seniors who identify as LGBTQ. Of the 74 units, eight will be rented to people experiencing homelessness or who require rental assistance. Another eight will be “deeply affordable units,” according to a press release from Walsh’s office, meaning available to seniors making approximately $25,000 to $40,000 per year. The remaining units are tiered based on median income, with varying levels of affordability.
The building will also include a gallery space, an arts studio, community rooms, gardens, walking trails and recreational space, which will be available to the surrounding Hyde Park community.
“LGBT folks from the outside might also want to come in and enjoy programming and services in this facility,” Mountour said. “We're building community as well as housing. The most important thing to have a happy, healthy, vital older age is to have community and not to be isolated, because being socially isolated has a profound effect on your health.”
Mountour says the ultimate goal is to create a neighborhood without fear, where elderly senior citizens can feel like a part of a community.
“It’s an issue for everybody who's aging, that your friends and families have passed away, and people can end up isolated,” she said. “For LGBT folks, it's even worse because many don't have family, or might have been rejected by their own families, so we become family to each other. We are our chosen family, we take care of each other.”
